October 21, 2022

Avignon, Provence, France

Today was a bit rainy and a bit slow but a lot of fun.

Sidney and I went to the market halle while Sonya was doing some work, and along the way stopped in front of the “Hotel de Ville” which is the town hall, where there was a huge pyramid of vegetables from the local area displayed.

The Halle, which is where we went on our first day in Avignon was still filled with delicious food. I got some apples and bread, Sid a lovely almond croissant. Then we returned to our apartment, collected Sonya and set off for Saint-Remy-de-Provence, about 35 minutes from Avignon.

Saint Remy is famous for being the site of the Saint-Paul Asylum where Vincent Van Gogh painted some of his more memorable works including “The Starry Night” and many of his works with olive trees, irises and lavender. Van Gogh only painted for about 10 years and died of self inflicted gunshot wounds at 37, but what a genius he was as a painter!

We arrived around noon…and all the shops, the tourism office and museum were closed, and the weather was a bit dicey so we had lunch at a creperie we’d spied on our way into town. It was great and by the time we finished, stores were reopening. We ended up walking to the site of the Asylum where Van Gogh was a patient, past many photos of his paintings and through and olive orchard. There we saw the gardens where he painted including one of lavender and iris. It was really a cool visit.

After walking back, past another old olive orchard, we returned to Avignon, did a bit of shopping and planned for tomorrow’s adventure, probably Les Baux.